


Photograph

by dangergranger



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: M/M, Post-Movie, drabble-ish, hope was always an option
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-09-04
Updated: 2011-09-04
Packaged: 2017-10-24 02:48:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/258069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dangergranger/pseuds/dangergranger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The photograph that lies on top of the old desk on the hallway is one of the best secrets kept at Xavier's Mansion.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Photograph

**Author's Note:**

> This is a drabble-ish fanfic that started to build itself on my mind as soon as I left the cinema (but it only came out weeks ago, since I'm a total lazy bastard who just likes doing fanart). Time is a relative concept so it doensn't apply very well to this fanfic - I kinda imagine the story happening +/- 5 years after The Divorce, so the new kids would already be there but would be old enough to begin understanting the tough situation between their leader and Magneto.  
> Sorry if there's any typos - english isn't my mother language and I don't have any beta.

_Every memory of walking out the front door_

 _I found the photo of the friend that I was looking for_

 _It's hard to say it, time to say it_

 _Goodbye, goodbye_

  


 

The photograph that lies on top of the old desk on the hallway is one of the best secrets kept at Xavier's Mansion.

 

There's no student that had never seen it; in fact, Jean came to the conclusion, the Professor had, rather unconsciously, placed it on a way that the photo was immediatly seen once you got into the house. To an ordinary guest, that picture was just one among thousand others that covered almost every plain surface available at the Mansion: students, ex-students, the staff and even some pro-mutant articles that had showed up in the papers throughout the years. It seemed important to the Professor that everyone remembered the good times they've had together; it was his own way of showing them that the Mansion would always be their home. 

 

Yet that special photograph doesn't suit these purposes, since the little ones don't even recognize the energetic - and _standing_  - young Charles on it.

 

But when it comes to the older ones...

 

Ororo thinks this is sheer stupidity. Illogical even. The past is in the past and that's how it should work. Daydreaming about times that won't come back isn't healthy, takes people away from what r _eally_ matters in life. But someone who controls the weather can't see things as a telepath does, can't sense the things Jean senses. Ororo had never felt the malancholy - or the happiness - that lurs behind Hank's eyes everytime he glances over the young lady on Charles' left side, those warm smiles forever frozen on the fading picture.

 

Ororo isn't also capable of sensing the same wave of feelings - _longingsadnesslovebetrayal -_ that comes from the Professor every single time his blue eyes hover over the picture.

 

Scott, on the other hand, thinks it's some kind of metaphor. The image makes them remember they're all brothers, he says, even though they fight on opposite sides of the battlefield. Jean thinks this explanation is quite beautiful. However, not everything done by the Professor has to have a secret meaning, as Scott likes to think. Beside his leader façade and his uncorruptly moral conceptions that made him a role model for all his students, Charles Xavier remains as human (or mutant) as any other living on that house. 

 

Jean has her own theory on that photo. There are no secret purposes or vain wishes to go back in time. The photograph is an invitation, a sign of an undying hope. " _Come back home"_  ir says _"It's not too late. It'll never be"._ It is a gesture of affection and acceptation towards the long-lost friends from the framed picture that, even though may never see it, it's still there. Just in case. Just because the Professor has always been - and will always be - a dreamer.

 

That's why Jean doesn't even flinch when she finds him holding the photo, sitting alone in the study while almost everybody had gone out with Ororo to buy some supplies. Their last encounter with Magneto and the Brotherhood had just been days ago and the wounds were still bleeding as she could tell by the darkness on the Professor's blue gaze. 

He doens't even look up. "Raven, she... She was like a little sister to me." the telepath's voice is soft, just above a whisper, ans Jean can feel the smoothness of red strains of hair as the Professor runs his fingers through the picture.

Words had never been necessary between telepaths nor Jean trusted her voice to say something. However, the younger feels the need to ask, slowly approaching  the other in order to peek at his shoulder and steal a glance on the photo.

" And he - Erik" the feeling between her fingers change and so does the movement of the Professor's hand, his long fingers driving towards the masculine figure on the right corner of the image. She can feels the thick fabric of a turtleneck, one of those that seemed to be in vogue at the 60's. "He" the Professor tries to speak again but is stopped by the light weight that is Jean's hand on his tense shoulder. She knows that what he was going through is too intense to be put into words.

 

"I understand" it's the only thing she manages to say and, as Charles senses it's the truth, he lifts his gaze from the chess table - that one that has been frozen on the same game since she came into the house-, meeting his student's eyes for the first time on that morning. They both have tears on their eyes but manage a smile, sharing a million things through the mental bond connecting them.

 

"C'mon" when the Professor speaks again his voice is his habitual tone, whereas the easy smile is slowly fading away as he places the black king to it's position and guides her to the entrance hall. "The others are coming. Let's wait for them outside, shall we?"

 

Almost as an afterthought he returns the photograph to the same place it was before. Because, as Jean Grey had guessed correctly, Charles Xavier had always been and will always be a dreamer.

 

Also, beyond that, because Raven Darkholme and Erik Lehnsherr will always be welcomed home.

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> So? Did you liked? I really enjoyed writing this - and that tone of bittersweetness on the end. Didn't expected to end up like this but I'm glad with the resoults.


End file.
